Credit: www.hometeam.sg
Sergeant (Sgt) Nur Hafizah is also another female officer with the Traffic Police Department who is passionate about helping others and fighting crime.
The petite 23-year-old has always wanted to join the SPF since she was young, and as a fan of motorbikes, working with the Traffic Police Department was a dream come true for her.
“I would like to clarify that Traffic Police officers don’t just give summons,” said Sgt Hafizah with a smile. Many of her friends did not know much about what Traffic Police officers do apart from issuing summons.
Her regular duties include public education on road safety, managing road traffic accidents and of course, enforcing road traffic violations.
Being a female rider, her first few months learning how to ride a motorbike were tough.
“The bike is quite heavy and we had to do training under the hot sun. Sometimes, I felt like giving up but my instructors encouraged me a lot,” said Sgt Hafizah.
Being smaller in size (both her Class 2B bike and her physical size), she sometimes gets defiant road users who might attempt to speed past her and appear hostile and aggressive when asked to stop.
“Some think that women officers are more lenient and “weak”, so it’s important to know your laws, and my tone of voice will indicate to the road user that I am not to be trifled with as well,” said Sgt Hafizah.
But being female also means she has more empathy.
She remembers an incident where she saw a young child not properly secured in a vehicle and the father of the child appeared agitated with her male colleague.
Sgt Hafizah then spoke gently to the child to explain the rationale of securing him to a seat and the dangers of failing to do so.
The child then nodded in agreement and told his father “don’t be angry”.
The situation was then resolved peacefully.
This year, the Singapore Police Force celebrates 65 years of women in policing.
There are 1,500 policewomen in active service and they make up about 17 per cent of the SPF.
Home Team News salutes our female officers!
Source: www.hometeam.sg
